What is the biggest problem with the abundance of mammals in the Pacific Ocean?
Probably the biggest problem is with the fisheries’ bycatch. The bycatch refers to the animals caught by fisheries that weren’t the intended species. Sometimes when fishing boats cast their nets or drag their lines, other species get caught; species they were not trying to catch. The bycatch (dolphins, whales, sea turtles, sharks, etc.) die by being tangled in the nets or caught on the lines. Do they work through the night? How many hours in a day do they work on the ship? If you are referring to the crew, definitely. The crew members work in shifts. The engines are always running, so there must be people on duty to make sure nothing happens. Twenty-four hours each day, there is always an officer on the bridge navigating the ship (see my August 26, 2005 journal entry), a watch stander on duty, and an engineer in the engine room (August 30, 2005 entry). The scientists doing the mammal and bird data collection work from sunrise to sunset. Then there is some paperwork to do. The oceanogra
